The outpourings of cant and hypocrisy from the rest of the world following US President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements have been hard to stomach. The tariffs are, after all, reciprocal. The loudest whingers are almost always the worst offenders against the US. For instance, the EU: one of the most aggressively protectionist markets in the world.
But nobody holds a hypocritical candle to China.
The communist dictatorship whining about the ‘international rules-based order’, and threatening to sue the US in the WTO is laughable. This is, after all, the same China that pillages other south Asian nations’ fishing grounds, loots billions of dollars’ worth of intellectual property every year, and brutally punished Australia with unilateral import bans when our PM dared suggest that Covid originated in China (which we know, for a fact, it did).
China also cheats the global trade system in other ways. For instance, the reason Trump imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada is because China was using both as a backdoor to circumvent earlier tariff restrictions. Instead of shipping its cheap crap direct to the US, China resorted to shipping almost-finished cheap crap to Mexico and Canada, where, with a final coat of paint, it was rebranded as ‘made in’ those countries.
With appropriate tariffs imposed on both those willing partners in cheating the system, China is trying to find patsies elsewhere.
South Korea’s customs office said on Monday that there has been a rise in attempts to disguise foreign items as Korean exports, particularly from China, in order to escape US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
Following a special investigation last month, the Korea Customs Service reported 29.5 billion won ($20.81 million) in country of origin breaches from the first quarter, with 97 per cent of the total attributed to shipments intended for the United States.
If the same rate of breaches continues for the rest of the year, that will amount to nearly a 400 per cent increase on 2024. Breaches destined for the US have nearly doubled on last year.
It’s just more of China’s same-old cheating.
There was a rise in disguised export attempts during Trump’s first presidency and we expect there to be a similar trend,” said Lee Kwang-woo, investigation planning director at the KCS.
Unlike its other so-called ‘friends’, South Korea is attempting to help the US catch China out.
Anticipating increased risks, authorities conducted the latest investigation preemptively to prevent illegal exports. They have already found signs of such attempts to avoid Trump’s tariffs from the first quarter, Lee said during a media briefing.
On Monday, South Korean customs officials held a meeting with US officials to discuss joint investigation efforts.
Trump is returning the favour, exempting South Korea from what would otherwise be 25 per cent tariffs.
Monday’s findings include 3.3 billion won worth of cathode materials used for batteries, imported from China and shipped to the U.S. with South Korea falsely marked as the country of origin, to avoid already high tariffs in January even before Trump’s tariffs took effect.
In March, 19.3 billion won worth of surveillance cameras were imported from China in parts and reassembled in South Korea to bypass U.S. restrictions on Chinese communication devices.
Some of the goods have been shipped abroad while others are still at the port.
The Korea Customs Service has launched a special task force to prevent attempts to illegally export such goods and plans to come up with more specific response measures to protect domestic companies. Meanwhile, the violations discovered will be referred to prosecutors.
Maybe other countries whining about Trump’s tariffs should actually try being America’s friends – and acting like it.
